Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) 2013 was a big one for Valiant. It has two FCBD offerings: one focusing on its ongoing series and another on its Valiant Masters collected editions.

In the FCBD Valiant Masters 2013 Showcase edition, we had a few new editions announced. Rai: From Honor to Strength for November 2013 and Eternal Warrior: The Fist and Steel for August 2013. They join Shadowman: Spirits Within coming in May 2013 alongside two others available now; Ninjak: Blackwater and Bloodshot: Blood of the Machine.

Valiant Entertainment first tested the hardcover waters with its acquired properties prior to 2012’s Summer of Valiant. Those three hardcovers reprinted the opening issues of classic series and also had a new story thrown into each: Archer and Armstrong: First Impressions, Harbinger: The Beginning and X-O Manowar: Birth.

As such, with the new Valiant Masters announced for 2013, readers will now have a total of eight classic Valiant series opening arcs collected in hardcover.

However, FCBD 2013 was also about looking forward with new series: four ongoing series and one seemingly limited one.

Unity was the name for Valiant Comics’ first big cross-over event in 1992; will it be the same for this new Valiant in 2013?

Eternal Warrior has already debuted in the pages of Archer and Armstrong; Ninjak has as well in the pages of X-O Manowar. It looks like both get new ongoing series in the Summer of Valiant 2 in 2013. The H.A.R.D. Corps debut as part of the Harbinger Wars mini-series impacted Bloodshot and Harbinger.

A rumor circling the internet is that the Bloodshot ongoing series will be renamed Bloodshot and the H.A.R.D. Corps this summer. Not sure if that will come to pass and if Bloodshot is in trouble sales or story-ideas-wise, but with a new Rai series NOT materializing in the Spring of 2013 as teased in last year’s Valiant’s 2012 FCBD offering, maybe the big red dot isn’t so lucky? Plus, that teaser image from FCBD 2013, certainly gives some credibility to said rumor.

Lastly, we have the cult classic Quantum and Woody making a summer series debut as well.

LOTS of Valiant of the horizon in 2013.

Valiant execs have also said that their publishing plan also includes new series not based on the Valiant catalogue they purchased. Looks like that may be a 2014 endeavor, but we’ll have to wait and see.

John Babos

John is a long-time fan of the comics medium and self-described comics historian. He currently writes the Monday weekly DEMYTHIFY column here at Comics Nexus. This follows years of producing the NEAR MINT MEMORIES column here at the Nexus, plus short stints at Bleeding Cool producing the COMICS REALISM column and a jaded column called ONE FAN'S TRIALS here at the Comics Nexus. John welcomes any and all feedback.